I didn't know this until that point and I really didn't care I was a wrestler and I knew it . On that day in late 1994 when I was stripped of the ability to suit up for the Bonny Eagle Scots my life took a sharp turn into a downward spiral I became jaded, pissed off at the world and just angry and while I knew I wasn't going to let asthma beat me, I was really knocked down hard wrestling was my life. I started looking at options for sports and there weren't any at the school level due to my waiver status .
I had done some play wrestling in the yard with neighborhood kids years prior prior to this (Starting in spring 1989) and I thought why the hell not, I have some skills that I could teach others and we could start our own wrestling league so I started getting guys together and we launched WCCWA (World Class Championship Wrestling Alliance) in the spring of 1995 .
We made our own championship belts out of Sheet metal and leather . We had a World, US, TV, Cruiser weight and Tag Team division . So after we created the belts we started working on putting the matches together to name the first champions the only problem is we didn't have a booker .
Note : A Booker is someone who books the matches for the card .
So those duties fell on my lap and I became the Creative Director of WCCWA . and I booked the matches for the first show and they were the worst wrestling matches I had ever seen in person . they guys didn't knwo how to work together because let me tell you even in school boy wrestling to a point you work together to make the match happen I don't mean to say that school boy wrestling is fixed or fake (I hate that word) I'm saying that when you're on the mat wrestling and you're about to be suplexed to the mat at some point you except that you're taking the suplex and as you' re thrown into the air you set your body up to take the bump and hit the mat or you get hurt badly .
I took many bad bumps during my 6 years on the mat because I was thick headed and didn't liek to work with my opponent it was til I started WCCWA that I learned the art of working with your opponent. and for the first two years the matches weren't fixed the best man actually won the match which is great except we were always hurt and working injured so we all decided that we would start booking the matches with a "finish" .
Note : A Finish is how the match is supposed to end like a finishing move or sequence .
It's not rocket science to book a wrestling match folks, you have a good guy or "babyface" and you have a bad guy or "heel" and the only thing that's fake about a wrestling match is the finish . we all had our finishing move that was a signal to the fans that the match was over and rarely did we let anyone kick out of a finisher unless the movie was screwed up or the pinfall took too long to get to .
My favorite match happened on September 16th 2006 it was the first ever "Iron Man" Match in WCCWA it was myself the reigning and defending WCCWA World Champion against my biggest rival "Knightwalker" Eddie Ramsey , this wasn't a traditional "Iron Man" match like you see in WWE now adays we did it differently in that the match was broken up into four 15 minute quarters with each quarter having a different stipulation, pinfalls only, submissions only regular match and the falls count anywhere and Hardcore rules .
This match is special to me for many reasons, the biggest thing was that Eddie and I wanted to know who the best was so we agreed to not book the finish of the match and just go out and tear the house down like we always did, it was the longest match in WCCWA history, it was the bets match Eddie and I ever had and I remember it for the way it ended we ended up tied at the end of 60 minutes 22 falls each, I was done with the match I figured the match ended in a draw and I had retained the belt we went back stage and had a rather heated discussion that we didn't solve anything so we came out under "Sudden death" rules the next fall would win the match, the championship and the right to call themselves the best wrestler in WCCWA .
So we went out and the ring announcer announced the rules for the sudden death round and I knew what I would do Eddie had been using an arm breaker all through the match so I would set up him for it only to roll him up for the quick pin and leave with the belt . so we wrestled for a few minutes and I was on the mat and I laid my arm out for him to do the arm bar, he grabbed it and before I could roll him up he flipped me into a crippler crossface and I tapped out, I didn't realize what I had done until the announcer said "Here is your winner and NEW WCCWA World Champion, "Knightwalker" Eddie Ramsey !! I rolled off the mat and grabbed the belt from the ringside table and walked back onto the mat I looked at Eddie I handed him the title belt (The big gold belt from WCW) and I shook his hand like a true champion and I walksed away and let him celebrate .
While I didn't always work as the booker I had a hand in the booking from the beginning of WCCWA all the way to the end when we shut down in 2007, I was tired of people not having the same passion for the sport of wrestling that I did, I was tired of always having to be the champion because I couldn't rely on anyone else to show up week after week . but I got the "itch" to wrestle again in late 2012 and started WCCWA back up and booked the entire year of shows from beginning to end so we knew what we were going week in and week out until October . it lasted a month before people were coming up with excuses why they couldn't wrestle and we called it quits for the year in July of 2012 .
To sum up the wrestling part of this blog I will tell you that while I never made a single penny from wrestling (I sure spent alot of money on it) I never missed a show or a booking, I was very successful at it having held 70 championships I look at those as some of the coolest moments of my life . I stepped away from wrestling officially in the Spring of 2013
I was having trouble sleeping for about a wek straight so my wife put a Melatonin in my soda and I went out like a light I had the most fucked up dream about a clown and a bunch of kids being chased around a carnival, I woke up the next day and started writing what would later be called Wicked Carnival and when I finished I siad "This is it, I need to make this movie" . I started looking into things how to get started etc and I sent the script to an editor friend of mine (Who I met on Twitter) she read the script and sent it back to me a dozen times to make sure the story was tight and around the time I got the final script finished someone who I let ready the script as a possible investor said the script is amazing but this movie would cost $100,000 dollars to make easy and I might not want to risk my entire film making career on my first film, I took that advice and shelved Wicked Carnival and started working on a smaller, lower budget film titled Sins of Man and we all know what happened from there, right.... Controlled Chaos :) I've enjoyed my life and careers because I've done it my way :) I'm proud of everything I've accomplished in my wrestling career and all the things I will accomplish in my film career .
People often ask me if I'll ever go "Hollywood" or if I will continue to do the "Indie film maker" thing my entire career and while I've learned to never say never I can safely say that I will most likely stay in the indie film world because I like making MY movies and not having 100 people tell me how to make a movie, what actors to use, how to change the script etc.
While I would love to work on a BIG BUDGET Horror film for a Major studio I know at this stage of my career I wouldn't want the pressure of working on an ICON of the genre like Jason, Freddy, Michael or Leatherface and I know it might not happen for me to work on a big Hollywood film so I'm happy with the success I've found in the indie film world :)
STAY HUMBLE, STAY HUNGRY MY FRIENDS : )